A Thousand Cranes
by Roses of Sharon
Summary: They say that with a thousand cranes comes a wish.  SasuSaku


Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: They say that with a thousand cranes comes a wish. [Slight AU

A Thousand Cranes

A small child sat at a table in the park, chubby legs swinging off the edge of her chair. Her plump fingers clumsily manipulated a brightly colored piece of paper. Her eyes, usually wide with curiosity, were narrowed, and her mouth pursed and tucked to one side in concentration. A last fold was made, and the child beamed. She set it to the side, and selected another piece of paper, this one a neon orange.

Dark eyes peeked over the edge of the table, and a cold voice asked, "Whatcha doing?"

Green eyes lifted from the page, and the small mouth untucked and grinned, "Hey! I'm Sakura! What's you name?" The dark eyes glared coldly into her, "What are you doing?" The beam faltered, "I'm folding a crane! They say if you fold a thousand cranes, you get a wish!"

"I know what they say." Sakura frowned down at the boy. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha." "Oh, hi, Sasuke! Who's _your _mommy? My mommy's over there. She's the prettiest mommy _ever_!"

His face darkened, "My mother is dead."

Sakura's eyes widened, "Oh…" She glanced down at her cranes and seemed to consider something. The boy sighed and turned, leaving.

Sakura slid off her chair and chased after him. She grabbed his sleeve, and he began to shrug her off, but she only had one thing to say, "I'll wish for you. I'll wish that you get a nice mommy."

He half-turned so that she could see one dark eye, but kept walking, and said nothing more. But the pink-haired child knew what he could not say.

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Sakura grinned at the crane sitting on her desk. It was an iridescent blue, and it was the one-thousandth crane of her set. She placed it carefully in a glass jar, and even more carefully slid a piece of paper in it.

The paper held one line, carefully scripted, "I wish that Sasuke Uchiha had a family, with a nice mom to take care of him."

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A pink haired teenager sat on the roof of the school, leaving against the fence that kept her from falling off, and folded a piece of black-blue paper, with a gentle sprinkle of gold stars. Her large forehead was partially hidden by bangs, held back by the blue-and-silver mark of their school that she wore as a headband.

She was training to become a medic-nin, and she was on her two-thousand-and-nine-hundred-and-ninety-eighth crane.

Her first wish had been for her first crush.

Her second for her first love: I wish Sasuke-kun could be strong enough to kill his brother.

This wish, she had already promised herself, would be for only her. She had already planned it out, and she had coordinated the colors. Pink, dark blues and violets, and a deep, passionate red.

"I wish that Sasuke-kun could love me, like I love him." It was a whisper; lighter than a feather, but it was all her heart had fed on for years.

A whisper disturbed by the banging of an opening door, and the sound of a blonde boy rushing through, "Sakura-chan!" She nearly dropped the crane, but managed to tuck it into a pocket as she stood. "Naruto, what did I tell you about barging in on people?"

The boy had already rushed up to her, and grabbed her wrist, "Come on, Sakura-chan!" As she was jerked along behind him down the stairs, Sakura managed to ask what had gone wrong.

"It's Sasuke-temee," the boy panted, "idiot went and got himself beat up on a mission." The world stopped for a single minute, as a Sakura tried to understand this. It should be easy, her brain told her, you're pretty smart. You understand lots of things.

But she didn't understand this.

Sasuke was supposed to be strong. He was stronger than anyone she knew. He was _amazing_, a prodigy, with the power of the Uchiha Clan. What had gone wrong?

Turns out, no one knew.

They stopped in front of the hospital, and when Naruto stopped, Sakura kept flying forward. In the door. Down the hall. Counter, to beg a fellow trainee to let her through. Emergency room 1. Empty. The second? Empty. Third? Locked.

This was it, then. Room Three.

And she didn't know what to do now. She sank to the floor outside, kneading her forehead. Sasuke was in there, she knew that. She rubbed her hands nervously against her dress, and felt the crane in her pocket.

The nine-hundred-and-ninety-eighth one.

She only needed two more.

And she could make the wish for him.

Almost blindly, she groped for another piece of paper, and folded a crane – the worst job she had done since preschool, but no matter. And then she found another, and folded it, just as badly. Now, how to get home.

There was a window, open, with the curtains blowing slightly in the breeze. Within moments, Sakura was outside, flying across the rooftops, propelled by light jumps. Her room, with those three enormous glass jars. Quickly, she took out the wish paper she had written for the last one, and stuffed the three cranes in. A scrawl across the same wish paper crossed out the first wish and filled it with another.

I wish Sasuke would get better.

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Her wish had come true.

He was better.

And she was on her three-thousand-one-hundred-seventeenth crane. Maybe this time, she thought hopefully, she could make a wish for herself.

Probably not.

But it was too late, anyways; Sasuke could never love her now.

She fingered the strands of her short hair. Her friend had once told her that Sasuke only liked girls with long hair. She hadn't liked the look, and Ino had looked better in it, but she had kept it, simply because she though he would like her better. It was gone, lost on one of her missions.

And he never had liked her more. He had looked at her with that cold gaze all the time, even when they were alone, even when she had just saved him from fan girls… even when he was hurt, and she was helping him.

Yeah.

She had been assigned to him. It was her job, her training.

And she had loved it, had enjoyed taking care of him.

But he had hated it.

So she couldn't make that wish… Even though it was the one thing she longed for. The one thing.

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Sasuke rapped lightly on Sakura's door. Bemused, he heard the sounds of a crash, a muffled curse, and then the door opened to the sight of a kunoichi whose face currently matched the color of her hair. He blinked calmly, and watched as she blushed bright red. "Um, I'm doing a bit of cleaning, but come right in!"

The door opened wider, revealing five years' worth of junk, piled in bags by the doorway, as well as a few sentimental belongings scattered across the floor and over the chairs.

Sakura turned and had walked halfway across the room when she realized that Sasuke hadn't budged. She beckoned with an impatient hand.

"Well, what are you waiting for? I said I would cook for you and Naruto, and I will!"

To her chagrin, he seemed to be thinking of an excuse to leave when the appearance of members of the former Uchiha Sasuke Fan Club decided him. Hurriedly, he stepped into the front room and closed the door.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, since you decided to stay after all, why don't you go sit on the couch?" called an amused Sakura as she made her way to the kitchen.

He stared after her for a few moments, then sighed inaudibly and made his way over to clear a space for himself on the couch. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a row of sparkling glass jars sitting on a shelf.

Curious, he leaned over and grabbed the first. A slip of paper floated in a sea of brightly colored, clumsily folded cranes. He remembered this one.

He glanced around a bit guiltily, and reached the next one.

Sakura came back to the sight of Sasuke gripping one of her precious crane jars so hard she thought it would break. He turned to face her, eyes colder than she had ever seen before. "What is the meaning of this?"

She glanced at the jar he held, heart sinking. But maybe he wouldn't notice… "It was the only wish that came true," she whispered, eyes glued to the floor. He replied coldly, "Which one?"

She gulped, tears brimming. Why couldn't he just let it go?

She shook her head, more weary than anything else, and replied only, "It doesn't matter. It can't come true now anyways."

If he had exploded, it wouldn't have shocked her half as much. Instead, he lost his temper and shouted back, "It does matter!"

Sakura's own temper flared to match his, "Oh, really, why? You don't care what I feel – you never have! I have never been able to say that you were even my friend!"

Sasuke bellowed back, "Of course you have! And it matters because you were manipulating my emotions!"

Sakura screamed in frustration, "It was only a wish on a thousand paper cranes! It can't come true anyways, so what does it matter?"

"It can't come true now because it _already did_!"

Silence fell, punctuated only by Sasuke's harsh breathing and the sound of Sakura plopping into her chair.

"What?" she tried to demand. It came out as a half-strangled whisper.

"You… love me?"

"I thought I did." His voice was harsh. "Apparently, I was wrong."

That night, Sakura ate two tubs of chocolate ice cream; watched three chick flicks, and used up three boxes of tissues.

Konoha lost a forest or two.

And Naruto had ramen after all.

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Ino and Sakura counted each other as their best female friends, but still, Ino had never thought that she would be the one nearly knocked over by a bawling Sakura. Her arms went around the girl as they walked to her house together and sat at the dining table, eating comfort food, and Sakura fed her story bit by bit to Ino, who had long ago discarded any feelings she might have had for the Uchiha…

And was instead furious, "He _what_?" Sakura nodded miserably, and Ino rose to grab a tub of ice cream, muttering curses at the idiot prodigy.

"I mean, I always knew he was cold and uncaring and all that, but to scream at you and just _leave_? After telling you _that_?"

Sakura nodded again.

Ino took one look at her friend's face and decided a pep talk was in order, as well as a good plan. She wracked her brains and came up with the most suitable answer. She nearly giggled with glee before turning to Sakura and smiling, showing all her teeth.

"Sakura, girl, I have the best plan _ever_. If _this _doesn't make Sasuke realize his feelings for you are real, nothing will." And with that, she whispered her plan to Sakura.

The pink-haired kunoichi's eyes widened before she nodded frantically and threw her arms around the other girl, "Oh Kami, Ino, you're a genius! Now, quick, let's just put these ice cream things away!"

Two minutes later, Haruno Sakura fainted dead away. A frantic Ino ran for Tsunade (explained the plan) and brought Sakura to the hospital, then ran to tell the news: That Sakura had gone to her house absolutely distraught, and just collapsed to the floor, and how Tsunade thought it was stress or nerves or something, and did anyone know anything?

Ino herself delivered the news to Sasuke, before anyone else had a chance to, just to see the expression on his normally emotionless face. She caught a mix between worry and full-blown panic before he rushed off, presumable toward the hospital.

She grinned, making sure no once could see her.

By nightfall, everyone knew what had happened, and that Uchiha Sasuke hadn't budged from Haruno Sakura's bed for almost an entire day.

By lunch the next day, everyone knew that Sasuke had confessed his love for Sakura and that they were officially together.

And by that evening, everyone also knew that Sasuke had been set up.

He didn't really mind, and kissed Sakura every time someone mentioned it.

So she didn't really mind either.


End file.
